The annual Image Expo was held earlier this month and (BIG SURPRISE) a lot of cool-sounding new titles were announced.  “The Black Monday Murders” is Jonathan Hickman’s new title with artist Tomm Coker and is based on the idea that all of the major financial institutions that run the world are actually secret schools of […]

I’ve been spoiled for the mystery behind the new Thor for quite a while now.  So the drama behind the big reveal falls pretty flat.  I was expecting that, however, and the three-part story leading up to the reveal by writer Jason Aaron and artist Russell Dauterman still manages to be pretty entertaining in and […]

“And I’d like to go on record as saying this is the dumbest idea in the history of Gotham City.  Now where’s my damn Batmobile?  Let’s go have some fun.” With those lines I completely bought into the idea of Commissioner James Gordon taking over for Batman in a robot Bat-suit.  Yeah, I’ll admit that […]

I really enjoyed what writers Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher did with the first volume of the series, along with the art from Karl Kerschl.  This naturally led me to anticipate vol. 2, which has turned out to be a letdown.  It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong here as the smooth, engaging storytelling […]

I’ve been eagerly anticipating this volume since it was announced back in 2012 as we’re helpfully reminded by its backmatter.  I won’t begrudge creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie for taking so long to get back to it, particularly since we got “Young Avengers” and “The Wicked + The Divine” in the meantime.  As those […]

Rick Remender’s creator-owned output through Image can be charitably described as “uneven.”  Though he’s clearly a skilled writer, he needs to find a new approach beyond simply tossing his characters into hopeless situations and then starting to grind them down.  It’s an approach that has worked on “Deadly Class,” is on the verge of breaking […]

Alan Moore tends to leave very deep footprints in his non-creator-owned work.  His run on “Swamp Thing” still reverberates to this day whenever someone tries a new take on the character.  The short stories he told with Batman and Superman still stand as some of the most memorable ones featuring the characters.  Even his run […]

I probably should’ve mentioned this earlier, but tie-ins to “Secret Wars” came in three different flavors.  The titles branded with “Last Days” showed how their characters reacted to the end of the Marvel Universe (such as it was).  “Battlezones” gave us a look at the goings-on in different regions while the main event was going […]

The sprawling “Batman Eternal” weekly series gets a follow-up of sorts focusing on all of the sidekicks the Caped Crusader has had over the years.  It may be telling a less epic story in half the space (this ran for 26 issues rather than 52), but that decision turns out to be the right one […]